The 2026 Morning News Tournament of Books Begins Today: Bookish Fun and One of My Favorite Resources

I am on record (many times) writing and talking about how The Morning News Tournament of Books is the best best list for readers, plus it is a super fun way to present it. Also they look back at the year we just finished, so this "best" of 2025 list is not decided until March of 2026. I love that the dust has settled on the year before these books are paired off in judged brackets.

And it all begins TODAY!

But wait, I think I am getting a little ahead of myself here. Let's back up a bit.

What is the Tournament of Books? From the About page:

But it’s not really a contest. We’re not even sure it’s a “tournament.” What the ToB has been and will be, as long as we’re putting it on, is a month-long conversation about novels and reading and writing and art that takes place on weekdays in March.

Here’s how it works. Throughout the year, we gather, read, and assess the works of fiction we think would make worthy Tournament competitors. In December we present our findings in the form of a "long list." We then cull it to a final shortlist of 16 or so books. (Some years we expand the list beyond the core 16 to include an extra set of two or more books that compete in a pre-Tournament play-in match.)

When the Tournament of Books begins in March, each weekday two works of fiction go head to head, with one of our judges deciding which book moves forward in the brackets, according to whatever criteria matters to them. Along the way, the judges reveal their biases and interests, any connections they have to the participating authors, and, most importantly, an elaborate explanation of how they decided between the two books.

Following that day’s decision, we have color commentary in the form of a dialogue between two experts. From the beginning, our ToB Chairmen, authors Kevin Guilfoile and John Warner, have cracked wise, but we’ve also invited into the booth our favorite literary podcasters, independent booksellers from across the country, and novelists like Elliott Holt and Laura van den Berg. Think of it as a bigger-picture view of the proceedings from people who not only have read a ton of fiction, but who are also familiar with the way that the publishing industry makes the sausage, to bastardize a phrase. Then we leave it up to you, the readers, to add your own passionate thoughts and rebukes to the mix in the comments.

As I mentioned above, The 2026 ToB begins today. It is the 22nd year of this bookish fun! Click here  to see the full list of titles that are competing this year. OR Click here for a spread sheet of the full list with summaries of the books.

And please keep scrolling because there is a play in round and this amazing downloadable bracket which you can fill out for yourself. Don't let the college basketball fans be the only ones to have the bracketology fun.

Or make a display of this year's titles but add in titles from past years which are available with one click here-- again scroll down they are all there.

If you want to take an even deeper dive, you can read "A Brief History of the Tournament of Books." 

Everything ToB is organized and easy to find, use for yourself, or to get your readers interacting with books during this "March Madness" season. You go to the About page for the archive, where clicking on that year's winner brings you to the entire ToB for that same year. See 2026's event page here.

And there is always a landing page for the current year. It is an amazing resource of "best titles," but also you have PLENTY of books to make a display that can last you the entire month of March. Remember, there are 22 years of titles that have competed and they are all available with one click (and a scroll down).

When you go to the 2026 landing page, use the drop down menu in the top left by clicking on 2026 to choose how you interact with the ToB as it progresses. There are page options for:

• Today's Match
• The Books
• The Bracket-- filled in as it goes on 
• And info on the Judges

This year, I have a clear book I want to win, and it will come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog or who has ever met me, it is The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. And its inclusion in this tourney is another reason I love the ToB as a resource.

The ToB is not your average book award or best list and not only because it is a battle between the books as judged by other writers using a bracket system. With ToB we also get the most diverse list of “best books” you will see anywhere, both diverse in authorship and genre. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter's inclusion as a #2 seed, meaning it is a favorite to win it all, is but one example of this.

And because it happens in March each year, but the books are from the year before, the 2026 ToB uses 2025 books meaning that many of  the titles are already off holds. This is a list of the current reigning "best books" but because of the timing, they are actually available to be read without a wait.

With ToB you not only learn about great books and why they are wonderful, but you also learn about the judges themselves, also a very diverse group of people throughout the publishing industry. You can learn about the judges whose information is after the books themselves on this page. Just the list of judges alone makes for its own resource to suggest books to readers.

Once the tourney begins each “battle” has a full write up which gets to the heart of the two books’ appeal and structure. These essays give us valuable information on who would like the book and why. Readalikes are also often mentioned. This is the easiest link to use to pull up each day's match-up and enjoy it for fun while also learning something new and unique about these popular books. Once it gets going you can follow the matches through the link to the in-progress bracket.

Oh and the comments. The readers who follow along religiously and have entire discussions about each pairing of books for pages and pages are THE BEST. Following just the comments is like reading a novel itself. Plus those are the comments of regular readers. There is even a running commentary on the battle itself by the tournament organizers.

ToB has also become my go-to resource for "literary fiction." Why? Because the ToB takes the idea of "literary" titles, titles worthy of being deemed as worth your time [which I hate, but it is a thing], and gives it a wide berth. I especially love using the backlist titles for book discussions. 

Speaking of the backlist AGAIN, I love the "Wall of Champions," which you can click here and scroll down to see. That page alone is an awesome "sure bet" resource.

I hope you find a way use the ToB as a resource to get your patrons excited about reading. You can use all of the past years to create a diverse (in every way) display to attract a wide swath of readers.

FREE Virtual Women in Horror Panel with Wake County [NC] Public Libraries

Come on, come all to Wake County [NC] Public Libraries on Thursday, March 26 from 6:30 to 8pm for a VIRTUAL, FREE event celebrating Women in Horror.

This event features some of the authors from my book. From the program copy: 

Join us for an online chat with dynamic women crafting the creepiest horror stories around! Explore the horror genre with authors Tananarive Due, Rachel Harrison, Alma Katsu, and Jennifer McMahon moderated by author and horror advocate Becky Spratford. Dive into spooky stories, get writing tips, and hear what inspires these amazing women authors. Whether you're a horror fan or a writer yourself, this panel’s going to be a scream!

We are going to have a lot of fun. We will talk about horror and about being a writer. There will be readings from the panelist's essays from WHY I LOVE HORROR and we will be taking audience questions. 

Click here or on the image below to join us. Let your patrons know about it too. I have verified with the Library that everyone is welcome to sign up. 

These are among your patrons' favorite authors. And they will be sharing their personal roads to becoming horror writers. This is an event readers cannot get anywhere else. And it is FREE and you can watch in your pjs. 

Sign up now.

I hope to see you there.

Summer Scares Programming Guide is Now Live

Huge thanks to Konrad Stump and the HWA's Library Advisory Council for getting the useful (and gorgeous) Summer Scares Programming Guide out for all of you to use. It is 100% free.

You can access it on the Summer Scares Resource Page here or directly with this link.

Below, I have reposted the Summer Scares Resource page as it stands today. It will be updated as the year goes on. We already have 3 known podcasts coming soon that are all about Summer Scares.

There is a lot of information you can use anytime of year to help your horror readers. And check out the links to sign up for the free Booklist Webinars featuring our 2026 authors. I will be at every webinar hanging out in the background to answer your questions. 

Finally, I leave you with this fun fact: 3 of this year's authors are nominated for a 2025 Bram Stoker Award-- Linda Cheng, Ally Russell, and Ally Malinenko.

This is the resource page for the 2026 Summer Scares program. Please visit the Summer Scares Archive for access to the resources and titles from 2019-2025 here.

The 2026 Summer Scares Programming Guide is available for free here.

It includes information on each title, readalikes, program ideas, book discussion questions and more. Basically if you want to use these titles for your summer reading plans, this guide has everything you need.

Please click here for access to our free folder of graphics including title collages courtesy of Kelly Jensen.

The 2026 Adult selections are:

A Botanical Daughter, by Noah Medlock (Titan, 2024) 

Never Whistle at Night, ed. Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst (Vintage, 2023)

Maeve Fly, by CJ Leede (Tor Nightfire, 2023)

The 2026 Young Adult selections are:

What We Harvest, by Ann Fraistat (Delacorte Press, 2022) 

Gorgeous Gruesome Faces, by Linda Cheng (Roaring Brook Press, 2023) 

Our Shadows Have Claws, ed. Yamile Saied Méndez & Amparo Ortiz (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2022)  

The 2026 Middle Grade selections are:

Garlic and the Vampire, by Bree Paulsen (Harper, 2021) 

It Came from the Trees, by Ally Russell (Delacorte Press, 2023)  

This Appearing House, by Ally Malinenko (Harper, 2022)

Watch the authors talk about their books, horror, and libraries via our Free Booklist Webinars:

• Thursday, March 12, 2026, at 2pm Eastern, featuring our Middle-Grade authors and moderated by Julia Smith. Click here to register.
• Monday, March 23, 2026, at 2pm Eastern, featuring our Young Adult authors and moderated by Kelly Jensen. Click here to register.
• Thursday, March 26, 2026, at 2pm Eastern, featuring our Adult authors and moderated by Jennifer McMahon. Click here to register.

.Recordings will be available for on demand viewing after the live events at https://www.booklistonline.com/webinars-archive.

More information will be posted here as it becomes available.

Click on the image to access the
Summer Scares 2026 Graphics folder

What I'm Reading: Wife Shaped Bodies

The March 2026 issue of Booklist has a review by me inside. As usual, this post includes my draft review and bonus content.

Wife Shaped Bodies
By Laura Cranehill
Apr. 2026. 288p. Saga, paper, $18.99  (9781668098103). 
First published March 1, 2026 (Booklist).

Sporror and body horror collaborate in beautiful unease inside a walled-in community of survivors populated by women whose bodies are covered in elaborate mushroom structures and the men who control them. Opening on Nicole’s wedding morning, as she is being shaved of the mushrooms which have grown across her skin for her entire life, readers watch Nicole leave her house for the first time in her life and make the walk to her husband’s home, a man who has held the rights to marry her since before her birth. With only Nicole’s perspective, readers enter Cranehill’s mesmerizingly immersive, atmospheric and unsettling world, as details are unveiled slowly, at first, and then with increasing urgency as Nicole meets fellow wife Teaghan, with whom she develops an all consuming connection, one that may allow them to expose for all what the men have been withholding. The resulting tale will weave its way into readers’ bodies, leaving an unforgettable mark. For those who enjoyed both the cultish, post-apocalyptic world of The Unworthy by Bazterrica and VanderMeer's Southern Reach series.

Three Words That Describe This Book: sporror/body horror combo, immersive, single pov

Further Appeal:  Other words: atmospheric, near future, post apocalyptic landscape, eco horror, unease that gets its feelers into you-- you feel the fungus grow on your own body...loved that--Gothic, queer, feminist, original, cults, female rage, multiple levels of abuse of the women here-- a lot of psychological abuse to go with the physical, visceral but not bloody. 

Before I go into anything else about this book I need to be clear-- the unease is enhanced because readers only see this strange, near future, apocalyptic world through the eyes of Nicole and only Nicole. She is unreliable in the literal sense as she has only lived her life locked in her parent's home. Now she is venturing out to be wed and live as a wife in the community as the book opens. This is before we learn about the weird, allowed in community the live in. 

The women as all covered in elaborate mushrooms, which they shave once married. The men run this world and are trying to protect the community after the destruction of civilization. The descriptions o the beautiful and carries mushrooms as they grow on the women's bodies is not just beautiful, it is mesmerizing. 

Details are let out in small doses as Nicole befriends and falls in love with another wife (Teaghan)-- but it is not so much romantic as more all consuming-- physically, yes but also Nicole has never had a friend, and this woman is her conduit to the "truth."

Clearly, something is going on with the women in this community. They are being absued physically and psychologically. The men are running things and using them in many ways which we learn over the course of the book. As the details are doled out, they pile up on each other, many of these details are shocking at first, but Cranehill does a great job making every detail build a fuller picture of the world as a hole. Nothing here is for chic value only.

It all adds up in the end, giving readers a picture of this strange landscape. We don't have all the answers of what is going on outside their walled community but we do get closure on the world the story is set in. And it is satisfying in every way-- intellectually, emotionally, and most importantly-- revenge worthy!

I cannot stress enough how well Cranehill does weaving the fungus and mushrooms into the entire novel. Readers feel them, smell them, see them. There were times I was batting something away from my eyes or scratching a part of my body because of what was written on the page. WELL DONE!

Great world building, interesting story, immersive in every sense of the word, and Nicole was a naive protagonist uncovering the truth that I wanted to follow. 

Now, you may be asking, Becky, this sounds like you should have given this book a star. I will say the one complaint I have about this book is that I did feel like the story was stretched in a few places to make this a novel. If it were a novella it would have been a star. A small complaint though. 

Readalikes: As I mentioned about it reminded me of if the cultish post apocalyptic world of The Unworthy by Bazterrica if it joined forces with VanderMeer's Southern Reach series. Also reminded me of Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías and Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed

American Booksellers Association's Winter Institute Recaps via PW and Self Awareness

I am back after a long weekend to watch my second kid's Junior recital at college with the whole family in attendance. I will be catching up on emails and such today but first, for all of you, I have something for you to catch up on as well.

Last week the American Bookseller Association had their Winter Institute 2026 (WI2026) in Pittsburgh. This event is comparable to their ALA Annual. Bookseller and authors converge from all over the country. There are panels, an exhibit hall, and tons of ARCs. 

I have said this before, but I know many of you still don't take it as seriously as I do, but understanding what independent booksellers are focusing on, how they are promoting books, and how they are attracting readers-- all of it-- is comparable to what we are doing. We need to be not only paying attention to them, but also, working with them more.

I am doing the working with them more part right now and there will be more on that soon. (Do stay tuned for more on this, I am working on a larger initiative and some smaller collaborations.  

In the meantime, you need to do your part and follow the news from last week's WI2026. I have made it easy for you. 

Click here to pull up all of PW's coverage.

Click here to pull up all of Shelf Awareness' coverage.

There is a lot of information here that you can use. This is the first major gathering of booksellers and authors for 2026. See what they are talking about, what authors were there, what the panels were about, what people said. It is all there. 

I did here from my colleague Lauren, one of the owners of the Twisted Spine, a horror only bookstore in Brooklyn, that there was a general consensus at WI2026 that horror author events are among the most popular at bookstore and this is true all year long. 

Finally, one of the reports that comes out during the Winter Institute is the Lee and Low Baseline Diversity Survey for Publishing. However, this year, Jason Low had to suspend the survey because of the state of book bans. And this suspension is indefinite. He instead released a call to action for everyone to work harder to fight books bans, especially those of children's books. Click here to read his call to action as published in PW.

And follow Kelly Jensen's censorship coverage on Book Riot for the most up to date information and even more action steps. 

RA for All Is On A Mini-Break

I am off today and tomorrow to spend some time with the whole family. 

Use the archives to poke around for "new to you" info until I return on Monday.

Making Book Recommendations By Thinking Like a Reader NOT a Librarian

One of the biggest problems we cause in our service to readers (yes, you read that correctly, "we cause"), is that we approach our interactions with our readers as if they are as plugged in to the entire book world as we are.

Yes library patrons do know more about the book world than you average person off the street, but they are not as aware as we are. We often forget that they haven't read all of last year's buzzy books let alone those from a few years ago. They barely remember the 2025 busy titles and they don't even remember those from 2024 or later. Most of us barely do. But they are all great reads.

Yes they are hearing about the newest books like we are, but they need us to remind them of the great books they missed. As I have said here and in my training programs many times before-- our job is to let people know about the books they would not find without our help.

This is something that BookTok gets correct by the way. Yes it is annoying when there is a book that we had forgotten about, maybe even weeded, that goes viral on there, but most of the time, the books those reader/influencers are "discovering" is a backlist title that we know about but have forgotten to promote to our readers in a while.

The vast majority of the books we have in our collections are NOT on the new shelf. I know this sounds obvious but admit it, you forget about the gems in the stacks in favor of the new shelf all the time. 

And honestly, our patrons tend to care about the newest books for 2 reasons. 1. They are a fan of that authors and are excited for a new title. 2. Those are the books everyone is talking about so they figure, these titles must be worth a try. And 2a. it is very hard and overwhelming to find a good read in the shelves and shelves and shelves of titles to choose from. Where do they begin? Oh look here is a shelf of books that came out in the last 6 months. I'll start there.

So how do we help them consider all of their options when looking for a good read. Well one way to begin is something I also talk and write about all of the time-- conversation starters. We should be helping people find books based on natural language questions, vibes, or very wide appeal factors. This is how we can connect people with books they will enjoy overall without worrying about what happens in the books. Again, another thing I write and talk about all the time-- we need to focus on why someone would like the book, and not focus on what happens in it.

And here is a great example of how to do this from Goodreads' Blog entitled Personality Picks! 136 Book Recommendations for (Nearly) Every Type of Reader. From the introduction.

What kind of reader are you?
 
That’s the thesis question for our Personality Picks collection of book recommendations, an experimental new sorting technique that we’re developing here in the Goodreads Labs. Our editorial team is constantly researching better and more efficient ways to turn a big pile of books into lots of littler piles of books.
 
As such, the categories below are based on common reader types we’ve observed in the Goodreads ecosystem and in the wild. This is a carefully curated collection and can be useful in a couple of different ways. If you think you know your reader type (or the reader type for whom you are buying a gift), then just jump to the appropriate header below: the Eternal Optimist Reader, for instance, or the Vibes Reader.
 
On the other hand, you can work backward and just scan below for the books you’ve already read or that you want to read. If you find a significant cluster, then scroll up to see your reader type. You may discover that you’re an Avant Garde Reader, or a Snug-at-Home Reader, or maybe an "I Just Listened to an NPR Segment About That" Reader.
 
We’ve also thrown in a few playful categories as we work out the proper taxonomy system. The Random Hyperfixation Reader, for example, may look hauntingly familiar. 

Click here to see the lists. But notice, these are natural language categories that include a variety of titles from multiple genres. That is how readers think.

You should use them to make some displays and lists. Idea-- use the title from Goodreads and put post-it notes on the books identifying the personality type. Mix them all up in one display. Or post the Goodreads link to your online spaces and ask people to leave comments as to what they would add to the lists.

You can also make up your own "personalities" and books to add to the mix. All of this show your community that you are thinking like a reader, trying to connect your collections to their interests in a way that prioritizes finding them a great read that they could not have found without your help.

Most of the work is done for you here, but you can also take it a step further and get your patrons involved as well. Go here and follow my conversation starter to displays advice and learn how to get them to suggest books and personality types to you so you can make them a part of your displays and lists.

But, and this is the but that will get you off your butt to do this extra step....while gathering patron input is fun and shows them that you are listening to them, this "reader personality" version of my Conversation Starter to Display exercise is extremely useful to plan your collections and service to readers. Why? Well because when you ask your readers what their "reading personality" is (especially when you give examples to get them started thinking about it) you are actually asking them to tell you what their favorite appeal factors are! 

Appeal factors are how we library workers think, and "reading personality" is simply a way to ask this in regular person language. When we do this we are thinking like our readers. And the resulting answers we will collect will give us a glimpse of what they like to read and why. This allows us to make better purchasing choices and provide displays and lists to help them navigate all of the books we have already under our roofs; titles they would love if only they knew about them.

This post is an example of how I think you should be working with your readers all of the time. For some, this is a huge change in direction, but it isn't hard because we are all readers too. Connect with your own inner reader and I promise, you will have happier patrons.

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: 2026 International Booker Prize Long List

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.  

From the article via PW covering this announcement:

The 13 titles on the 2026 International Booker Prize longlist have been announced.

The selection was made from 128 books submitted by publishers and celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the U.K. and/or Ireland between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2026. The titles were chosen by a judging panel including author Natasha Brown (chair); writer, broadcaster and Oxford University Professor of Mathematics and for the Public Understanding of Science Marcus du Sautoy; International Booker Prize–shortlisted translator Sophie Hughes; writer, Lolwe editor, and bookseller Troy Onyango; and novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy.

Starring a "queer Argentinian conquistador," a "Japanese novelist with a ‘monstrous appetite’," and a "Danish noblewoman accused of sorcery," among other memorable characters, the longlisted books "use our collective histories to shine a light on our current preoccupations, and on the power imbalances that stem from gender, money and geopolitical forces," per the Booker Foundation. The titles hail from 11 original languages, by authors and translators representing 14 nationalities across four continents.

All but three of the books have U.S. editions out or forthcoming.

The longlisted titles are:

• The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German by Ruth Martin (Scribe)
• We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from Spanish by Robin Myers (New Directions)
• The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated from Dutch by David McKay (New Vessel)
• The Deserters by Mathias Énard, translated from French by Charlotte Mandell (New Directions)
• Small Comfort by Ia Genberg, translated from Swedish by Kira Josefsson (HarperCollins, forthcoming September 1, 2026)
• She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel (Sandorf Passage)
• The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from German by Ross Benjamin (Summit)
• On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan (Charco, U.K. edition)
• The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre, translated from Italian by Antonella Lettieri (Foundry, U.K. edition)
• The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump (Vintage)
• Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur, translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh (Syracuse UP)
• The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken (New Directions)
• Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King (Graywolf)

Click here to read the full article. 

The Booker Prizes have an excellent website that makes the information about their awards not only easy to access, but also they provide a lot of background information that helps us help more readers. And from the current year's page you can easily access past years from the "International Booker Prize" drop down menu.

But back to this year, I love all of the information they provide. For example, in the article about this year's longlist it says:

The longlisted books travel across continents and centuries. There are bittersweet love stories and dark fairy tales; fictional accounts of historic figures and narratives steeped in magical realism. With themes ranging from witchcraft to warfare, resilience to cruelty, magic to murder, and revolution to renewal, the nominated books offer explorations of our capacity to endure, resist or reinvent ourselves, and to remain hopeful in challenging times. 

This paragraph is a great way to promote this longlist in general and makes it sound like all the books are worth a read. But then there is more links as you scroll down, including:

• Everything you need to know about the International Booker Prize 2026 longlist
• and it literally has EVERYTHING.
• What our judges said about the about the International Booker Prize 2026 longlist
• This one is very useful when helping readers because it is what the people who loved these books had to say about why they loved them
• As you scroll down on the page, you can click on each title's cover to learn even more about that specific book.

And there is even more if you keep scrolling. So much great useful information. This award and the website that promotes it is really the perfect example of why award longlists can be one of your best resources. 

But in this case, we have more to be excited about. Translated fiction is getting more popular. This is mostly because there is more of it being made available to the US market. Case in point this year, as mentioned above, 10 of the 13 titles are already available in the US market. In years past we had to wait until AFTER the award was given to even get a majority of these titles into our US Library patrons' hands.

The books are more easily available, people want to read them, and now we have a reliable resource of the titles that are worth our time to consider for our collections.

Get over to the Booker International Prize website and order the 10 current longlist titles that are available right now. And go back and look at what past year's titles you could add from here as well. Your readers will be so happy. Again, from the current year's page you can easily access past years from the "International Booker Prize" drop down menu.

Remember, your job is to help your readers find those great reads they would not find without your help. And the International Booker Prize longlists from the last few year are your best resource to identify titles that will do just that.

We Interrupt the Regularly Scheduled RA Training Blog Post Because.....WHY I LOVE HORROR is a Bram Stoker Nominee

 ...for Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fction. 

Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fiction

Borwein, Naomi Simone, ed. — Global Indigenous Horror (University Press of Mississippi)

Grafius, Brandon R. and Morehead, John W., eds. — The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters (Oxford University Press)

Hieber, Leanna Renee and Janes, Andrea — America's Most Gothic (Kensington Publishing)

Scrivner, Coltan — Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can't Look Away (Penguin Random House)

Spratford, Becky Siegel, ed. — Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction (Saga Press)

And three of the essays made the ballot for Short Non-Fiction:

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

Barb, Patrick — “Deathwish Wolf Man: The Tragic Hero at the Heart of the Universal Monster” (Interstellar Flight Magazine) (Interstellar Flight Press)

Due, Tananarive — “My Long Road to Horror” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)

Jones, Stephen Graham — “Why Horror” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)

Moshaty, Mo — “Haunted Thresholds: Liminal Horror and the Psychological Disintegration of Women from Post-Partum, Grief, Trauma and Religious Fanaticism” (Darkest Margins: 24 Essays on Liminality and Liminal Spaces in the Horror Genre) (1428 Publishing Ltd)

Pelayo, Cynthia — “My Mother Was Margaret White” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)

Click here for a full list of the 2025 Bram Stoker Award nominees.

I'll be back with your regularly scheduled RA for All posts tomorrow.

Coming to a Computer Near You-- Booklist's Summer Scares 2026 Author Panels

Huge shout out to Booklist for taking on the administration of 3 webinars to introduce library workers all over the world to our Summer Scares authors and editors. From the marketing copy for the webinars:

Blood still chilled from the winter? Keep the feeling going with our upcoming Summer Scares webinar series, which will see discussions of the horror genre with this year’s selected authors for middle-grade, YA, and adult audiences. Booklist is proud to continue its partnership with the Horror Writers Association’s Summer Scares Reading Program—alongside Book Riot, iREAD, and NoveList—to bring free library programming and a broad range of horror recommendations to readers of all ages. Invite us into your library, won’t you?

 Click here to see all of the webinars or use the links below to register.

Booklist Books for Youth senior editor Julia Smith will get things started by chatting with the authors of the 2026 middle-grade picks: Ally Malinenko (THIS APPEARING HOUSE), Bree Paulsen (GARLIC AND THE VAMPIRE), and Ally Russell (IT CAME FROM THE TREES). This free, one-hour webinar will take place on Thursday, March 12 at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT. Click here to register for the Summer Scares Middle Grade webinar.

Author, Book Riot senior editor, and fierce YA lit advocate Kelly Jensen will peer into the shadows with the 2026 Summer Scares YA authors and editors: Linda Cheng (GORGEOUS GRUESOME FACES), Ann Fraistat (WHAT WE HARVEST), and Yamile Saied Méndez and Amparo Ortiz (OUR SHADOWS HAVE CLAWS). This free, one-hour webinar will take place on Monday, March 23 at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT. Click here to register for the Summer Scares YA Webinar.

Join 2026 Summer Scares spokesperson and New York Times bestselling author, Jennifer McMahon, as she hashes out all things horror with authors and editors of this year’s adult selections: Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst (NEVER WHISTLE AT NIGHT), CJ Leede (MAEVE FLY), and Noah Medlock (A BOTANICAL DAUGHTER). This free, one-hour webinar will take place on Thursday, March 26 at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT. Click here to register for the Summer Scares Adult Webinar.

Before the first webinar, we will be debuting the Summer Scares Programing Guide (estimated release date is 3/2/26). The link will be made available at each webinar and it will be posted on the Summer Scares resource page as well.

Each year I am blown away by how many people sign up and then actually join us (number of live participants is in the 900s +). Thank you for supporting this work and for incorporating horror into your summer reading programs and understanding it is a great reading choice for all ages, all year long.

Use the links above or click on the images for each webinar below to register. Even if you cannot join us live, you will be emailed the recording. I will be behind the scenes for each webinar, there to answer your questions about the program while we all get to know the authors and their books a little bit better.

Any and all Booklist webinars, including last year's Summer Scares events (here, here, and here) are always available for free in the Booklist webinar archive. 

See you there.